Law Commons^™

Proposed Guidelines For Student Religious Speech And Observance In Public Schools, Jay Alan Sekulow, James Henderson, John Tuskey

Mercer Law Review

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion .... " The First Amendment also provides, "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.. ." Perhaps no question has so bedeviled American courts in this century as that of how to reconcile these two provisions in this nation's public schools. Questions that arise include: Does allowing students to pray, share their faith with other students, or even discuss their religion at the public schools constitute an "establishment of religion?" May public schools go …

Graduation Prayer After Lee V. Weisman: A Cautionary Tale, Stephen B. Pershing

Mercer Law Review

Loudoun County, Virginia, is a lush expanse of fields and rolling hills at the edge of the burgeoning Washington metropolis. Its growing population is heavily white, affluent, and Christian. In 1993, a year after the Supreme Court's decision in Lee v. Weisman, the county not surprisingly became an arena for the resurgence of a familiar prayer in America's public schools.

This Article tells the story of the Loudoun County graduation prayer litigation, and tries to set the case in context. It ponders doctrinal questions from an unabashedly separationist perspective, but it offers words of caution for both sides in the …

The Threat To The American Idea Of Religious Liberty, Robert S. Peck

Mercer Law Review

With the Supreme Court unlikely to overturn its public school prayer decisions, those who seek a greater religious presence in education have launched two complementary strategies intended to expand existing guarantees of school-related worship rights.

The first strategy is a renewed effort to pass a school prayer constitutional amendment utilizing the political muscle that conservative religious interests demonstrated in the 1994 elections and which resulted in the first Republican controlled Congress in forty years. The amendment movement dangerously attempts to authorize the use of government offices for purposes of religious indoctrination. Though previous efforts at authorizing public school prayer through …

The Ironic State Of Religious Liberty In America, Frederick Mark Gedicks

Mercer Law Review

The constitutionality of organized graduation or classroom prayer in public schools is an issue of continuing controversy in the United States. There are, of course, numerous policy arguments for and against allowing prayer in public schools, but I will be focusing on the constitutional issues and consequently will have rather less to say about policy. (I will disclose, however, that as a matter of policy, I think there are problems with public schools' organizing and sponsoring group prayer as part of graduation ceremonies or classroom activities; it would seem that Mr. Peck, Mr. Sekulow, and I all agree on that, …